Trump says he'll decide Friday whether to fire Tom Price: 'I can tell you, I'm not happy'

President Donald Trump told media he'll decide by Friday night whether to fire Tom Price over his air travel.

Tom Price  (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

President Donald Trump said he'll decide by Friday night whether to fire Tom Price, the health and human services secretary who has elicited bipartisan condemnation in recent days over the cost of his air travel.

"He's a very fine person. I certainly don't like the optics," Trump told reporters as he was boarding Marine One. "I'm not happy, I can tell you that. I'm not happy."

He added: "We have great secretaries and we have some that actually own their own planes, so that solves that."

Price has cost taxpayers more than $1 million between his use of private planes for domestic travel, and military jets for recent trips to Africa, Europe, and Asia. The Health and Human Services department is conducting an internal review of his flights, and Price has said he welcomes the review.

The expenses were first revealed byPolitico, which found that Price opted for private travel over commercial flights 24 times since May, exceeding $400,000. His use of military jets for international travel, on which his wife Betty joined him, cost taxpayers more than $500,000.

Trump publicly criticized Price over the flights earlier this week. He told reporters on Wednesday he was "looking into it" and declined to say he had confidence in Price.

"I will tell you personally, I'm not happy about it. I am not happy about it. I'm going to look at it. I let him know it," he said.

Price has said he plans to reimburse the government roughly $52,000 for the cost of his seat on the private domestic flights he took. Price has already reimbursed the government for the cost of his wife's travel on the international flights, a spokeswoman for his office said.